Monday, February 20, 2012

Is God Warning America?

What
is the secret of America’s great success?
America’s freedom and prosperity didn’t happen by chance. We are
a nation blessed by God. We have been
blessed beyond any nation in history but now we have forgotten God. Psalm 9:17 "The wicked shall be turned
into hell, and all the nations that forget God." We continue to fill the cup of God’s wrath
with our corruption. God is saddened
when a man seems content to live in the filth of his own corruption. A man should tremble at the wrath he stirs in
the heart of God when he attempts to destroy the hearts of others, especially
the young and innocent, with his corruption.
As a nation we have awakened the wrath of God by exporting our
corruption to other nations. We use to
export steel, textiles and technology.
Now we export pornography, abortion and homosexual rights.

We
have banned the Bible, prayer and the Ten Commandments from our schools and
institutions. We have banned the very
mention of God’s name. Do we expect God
to slump his shoulders and walk away?
What is God’s reaction to America’s rejection of him? Because he is the same yesterday, today and
forever and he never changes, we can learn how God will react to America today by
looking historically at how he reacted to countries of the past that committed
such sins.

What
do Israel and America have in common? They
are the only two nations in history that were founded upon God from their very
inception. America was called to be a
light to the nations just as ancient Israel was. God’s plan for countries that he has chosen
to be light and salt is that if we continue to follow him we will be blessed but
if we turn our backs on him and forget him we shall be removed.

Dr.
Luke recorded these words of Jesus; “…to whom much is given, of him shall much
be required." (Luke 12:48) We were established on the foundations of the
very word of God and he blessed us for our efforts, for our obedience. We became the wealthiest, most powerful
nation on earth. We were blessed with
resources, we were blessed with ingenuity and innovations and a standard of
living that other nations could only dream of.

Israel
experienced similar blessings over 2500 years ago. Israel was chosen of God to be that “city
upon a hill”, that nation that would be the flag ship for all other nations,
pointing them toward God. But Israel was
influenced by the pagan practices of neighboring nations. They lost their hunger for God and they began
to yearn for frivolous things that would temporarily satisfy the lusts of their
hearts. They began to live for the
moment rather than for eternity.

God
allowed Israel to suffer an attack from Assyria from the north. This was a wakeup call. But rather than respond to this warning from
the Almighty, Israel continued in her waywardness. When God spoke against the sons of Jacob and
his judgment fell on Israel they said, “The bricks have fallen down, but we
will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will
replace them with cedars.” (Isaiah 9:10)

God
removed the umbrella of protection from Israel.
He meant this attack form Assyria to be a warning. It was a wake-up call. He was pleading with his chosen: “If my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal
their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14) But
they were a rebellious people, they had “eyes to see but do not see and ears to
hear but do not hear.” (Ezekiel 12:2)

The
attack of the Assyrians didn’t move them to repent, rather, it revealed their
arrogance. “We will replace the damaged
bricks with dressed stone. We will
replace the fallen sycamores with tall and noble cedars,” they said. The first stage of judgment was completed and
it resulted in no conversion. Therefore,
God will try again to awaken the hardened, sleeping hearts of the
Israelites. What is more serious than to
lift one’s fist to the face of God and refuse his call to repentance? God could not ignore this blatant rebellion.

When
God smites he means to humble us and turn us back to him. When the reaction is pride instead of
humility we are setting ourselves up for a greater smiting. Matthew Henry says of this verse: (Isaiah 9:10) “The people turn not to Him who
smites them, therefore he continues to smite: for when God judges, he will
overcome; and the proudest, stoutest sinner shall either bend or break.”

Messianic
Rabbi Jonathon Cahn identifies 8 harbingers in this verse. (The Harbinger, Jonathon Cahn) A harbinger is anything that foreshadows a
future event. Cahn makes a convincing
comparison between God’s treatment of Israel and God’s treatment of America.

The
first harbinger was “the bricks have fallen.”
This bricks were weak, sun dried and easy to destroy. There was damage but it was limited.

The
second harbinger; “but we will rebuild.”
God is encouraging repentance but they are defying this and choose
instead to display their arrogance. They
will apply human effort to undo the judgment of God.

The
third harbinger: “we will rebuild
stronger.” “If you destroy our bricks we
will replace them with strong and ornate stone.
If you destroy our sycamore trees, trees of little value, we will
replant great cedars. We will make what
you destroyed greater than it was before,” they said.

The
fourth harbinger: “the hewn stone”. “The bricks have been destroyed but we will
rebuild with hewn stone.” The weak
bricks made of clay will be replaced by stone hewn and cut from the
mountain. They shook their fist in the
face of God and said, “You destroyed us in our weakness, we will come back
stronger than ever.”

The
fifth harbinger: The spirit of
defiance. God recognizes this attitude
and he is trying to purge them of this sin.

The
sixth harbinger: “The sycamore has been
cut down.” This tree was a type of fig
mulberry tree. They were common, they
were weak. The Assyrians cut them down
when they attacked.

The
seventh harbinger: The strong Cedar
tree. “We will replace the weak sycamore
with the strong cedar. You sent the
Assyrians to attack us. You thought it would
weaken us and turn us to repentance.
Instead, the weak will be made strong and we will do this by our own
effort with no help from God.”

The
eight harbinger: The leaders of the
nation say that they will rebuild. “We
will be stronger yet.” They failed to
humble themselves in the eyes of God and because of their arrogant reaction, “his
anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.” (Isaiah 9:21)

Cahn
compares this first judgment of God on the Israelites with America’s 9/11
experience. What was 9/11? It cast our country into shock. Seven years later our economy came crashing
down. Was this God sending a warning
across the bow?

The
Rabbi draws our attention to the next chapter in Isaiah: “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in
whose hand is the club of my wrath!” (Isaiah10:5) God is using the Assyrians to warn
the Israelis of judgment yet to come. He
then says that after he is finished with this ‘rod’ he will “…punish the king
of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.” (Isaiah 10:12)

As
God allowed the Assyrians to wake up the Israelis, has he not allowed the
terrorist of 9/11 to wake up America? Are
we going to humble ourselves and repent or are we going to be arrogant and
ignore his judgment?

The Harbinger, Jonathon Cahn

The Harbinger, Issues in Education, Bob and Geri Boyd

Matthew Henry’s Commentary – Isaiah Chapter 9

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.